A new class of consumer digital cables known as Compact Active Cables has arrived in
the market. Compact Active cables embed signal processing technology directly into the
cable structure to improve bandwidth performance and extend the capability of many
communications standards such as HDMI, USB, DisplayPort and Infiniband. In Compact
Active cable solutions the embedded chip compensates for the data loss which occurs
when very high speed signals are transmitted over copper. This active boosting means
that active cables can be made thinner, longer, faster, lighter and more compact than their
passive equivalents. Using HDMI as an example case, in this paper the limitations of
HDMI passive cables are reviewed and the principles of Compact Active cable
technology are explained.